Margot Cheel is an award-winning aerial photographer whose work has been exhibited in New England, South Florida and Ontario Canada. Cheel’s photos have also appeared in numerous publications, calendars and environmental presentations. She recently published a hard cover photography book of her coastal images of Cape Cod entitled “Sea & Sand from the Sky: Aerial Photography”.

Cheel received her Bachelor of Arts from Middlebury College, Vermont, and worked in production at WGBH-TV in Boston. She is also the co-founder the Twin Willows Arts and Craft Center in Ontario, Canada. After more than three decades as a creative arts teacher, she launched an aerial photography business that merged her love of the arts with her passion for flying.

We’ve seen colorful orbs in a light painting before but never as many as the East Coast Light Painting (ECLP) group crammed into a single exposure this past summer. In fact, the Guinness World Records just confirmed that the ECLP set the world record for most complete light orbs in a single exposure with 200 orbs.

The Sony A77 II is the replacement for the A77, which made its debut in 2011. The A77 II uses a new image sensor with 6000x4000 pixels (same resolution as the A77) that, while sharing the same resolution as its forerunner, does have a new micro lens system that captures more light on each single pixel/diode of the sensor. This helps raise the maximum ISO to 25,600 and to 51,200 as a “push.” In contrast to some other new advanced cameras, the APS-C sensor in the Sony A77 II uses a low-pass filter to prevent moiré effects.

There’s no reason to pack your photo gear away when the first snows of winter start to fly. Winter photography presents some of the most wonderful opportunities to capture stunning subject matter that is not available during other times of the year. With the ground enveloped in a blanket of white snow, even familiar surroundings will take on an entirely different perspective and serve as the background for new and exciting images.

Need to shoot a camera for eBay, Thingamajig for your employer’s website or pastry for the bake sale? You can get slick, professional-looking results with minimal headache and a very tiny investment using mostly recycled stuff.

A handy photo accessory for active outdoor photographers, Cotton Carrier’s new StrapShot EV1 is thinner than the original model, and includes a redesigned tether and a wrist strap (that can also be used as a safety leash against accidental drops). The StrapShot EV1 is compatible with any backpack, sling bag or belt.

WD (Western Digital) has launched four new network attached storage (NAS) devices including the new My Cloud Expert Series, which is aimed at photographers and other creative professionals. NAS devices, which connect to a home or studio network and allow multiple users to access, manage and stream stored files, have become an increasingly popular storage solution for photographers.